Flagstaff set to host rec, house tournaments in 2016-17

When Flagstaff Youth Hockey Association (FYHA) president Kevin Tye sat down with organization officers recently, one topic of discussion that came up was how FYHA teams routinely go to in-season tournaments in the Phoenix area.

That conversation quickly morphed into, “Why can’t those teams from the Valley come to Flagstaff?”

“Our kids and parents always say how much fun it is to go down to Phoenix, so we want to have that happen here,” said Tye. “We already have ice set aside (at the Jay Lively Arena) for Martin Luther King weekend (in January) and President’s Day weekend (in February). We have a good relationship with those teams in Phoenix and we really believe that this will work and will be a lot of fun.”

Tye noted that the tournaments would be for rec and house teams that normally don’t get to travel and partake in events like these, which will mirror how travel tournaments are run, including announcing three stars each game, MVP awards and having complimentary morning snacks and coffee.

“These tournaments will be very affordable and to be honest, all we’d be looking to do is recoup the costs associated with running the tournaments and even if we lose money, we believe that this is a great thing to do and will be very well-received by all those involved,” said Tye.

“We really want to keep pushing the rec and house programs and these tournaments will definitely do that.”

The tournaments each would have a specific age group participating, but that has yet to be finalized, according to Tye, who added that each event would also be branded with a theme associated with the holiday. In the past, the MLK event has been tabbed “King of the Mountain.”